Quite a tricky production from Scorpion today, but what does one expect? Everything (apart from one or two about which I’m not quite certain) seemed to be easy enough to explain after the event and there were some nice clues.
John
Independent 8,964 by Dac
Only yesterday I was reading the view of someone that we are in a golden age of crosswords. We are certainly in a golden age so far as Dac is concerned, since for the past several years he has almost weekly produced a perfectly-formed object.
Independent 8,959 by Morph
A nice, crossword from Morph today. I found it slightly on the hard side, though now that I’ve done the blog I can’t see why. The (possibly) CDs round the middle of the acrosses were a bit of a problem, but everything else seemed to fall into place well enough.
Some would make a very mild criticism of the answers in the grid: 18dn ends with the word OFF, as does 25ac. Possibly not the best: I did 18dn and then couldn’t believe that 25ac also ended with the same word, but there aren’t many possibilities for _ _ F.
Definitions in italics.
Independent 8,954 by Phi
Phi has not in my opinion shone quite so brightly this week as he usually does. It seems to me that several of the definitions, both of the answers and within the wordplay, are rather tenuous, although no doubt people will explain how I am missing things.
I took a long time to finish the NW corner; Rienzi was slow to appear, even though Phi gave us plenty of help by defining it as a German opera, which immediately cut out more than half of them. 12ac was apparently unsound, but more likely never properly understood, and the double definition at 8dn was also a problem. When I gave up and went to aids my Chambers Crossword Dictionary didn’t help: Bradford may have been better.
Azed 2245 / Carte Blanche
Azed has given us a carte blanche this week, the sort of thing he doesn’t often do, leaving his specials for when they are really worthwhile, the first Sunday of the month when … Read more >>
Independent 8,945 by Morph
Well up to Morph’s usual high standard today. This is a very pleasant crossword with some excellent clues and only a few niggles, some of which may amount to nothing. It is on the easier side for Morph — at least it was for me — but when I’m blogging that’s always a good thing.
Independent 8,940 by Dac
When Dac is the day’s setter the preamble to the blog tends to contain the word ‘usual’. Justifiably so. Such good surfaces, nearly every one of which paints a little picture without compromising the quality of the clue.
Independent 8,935 by Tyrus
Quite amazingly difficult, for me at any rate, who took ages. Tyrus sails fairly close to the wind but is so far as I can see ultimately fair. I didn’t really enjoy this because it was such a slog, but perhaps if I hadn’t had the pressure of blogging, it would have been easier. It will be interesting to see how people got on.
Independent 8,930 by Phi
The usual excellent production from Phi. My own stupidity resulted in lack of completion — I was looking for ages at 1dn — and in particular Phi has done two things of which I approve: although there are unches all round the edges he never has less than 50% checking, something that the grid makes a bit tricky; and in 12ac he has given us some wordplay. Many setters would have been quite happy with ‘Supporters of bridges’ as a cryptic definition, but not Phi, who gives us two ways into the solution, realising that there is nothing to stop you from having a clever and witty definition in a ‘straight’ clue.
Independent 8,921 by Anax
Anax usually appears on Saturdays in the Independent, or so it seems, but he has put in a welcome weekday appearance today. This is the usual excellent production (I would say that wouldn’t I, since he may well be at the S&B later today; but of course it’s true). It wasn’t at all easy, but Anax seldom is; I think I’ve just about understood everything, but there are one or two slightly dodgy parsings which I trust will be explained properly by someone.
Definitions underlined.
Independent 8,916 by Dac
I am usually trying to write a clue in some clue-writing competition or other; and it is nearly always tortuous. In Dac’s case none of his clues are tortuous: they all seem to be perfectly natural, and they always have a simple and strong surface. Why it should be that the words Dac clues are so different from those that I try to clue is beyond me. Actually they’re not: it’s just that he is rather better at it than I am.
Definitions underlined.
Azed 2239 ‘Spoonerisms’
In a way (but only a way) my heart sank when I saw what I was going to have to blog: Azed’s specials are always excellent but take ages and are often very complicated. I was unsure that I’d be able to cope, but it’s all done now and any mistakes have now been made, I’m afraid.
It’s a long preamble, which I won’t repeat, except to say that there are two types of clue, occurring in more or less equal numbers. In half of them (and in these clues I’ve put (D) by the answer) you have to define the answer by finding a spoonerism in the clue. In the other half, which I found more difficult, certainly at the start — I had about ten of the first type before I got any of this type — the clue leads to a spoonerism of the answer, which is always a word in Chambers. So in these cases the answer isn’t actually defined and perhaps that’s what makes it so difficult to get started on them. In the first case the subsidiary indication is normal and in the second it leads to the actual word in the answer, not the spoonerism of it.
Really good. Definitions underlined.
Independent 8,911 by Eimi
It wasn’t difficult to guess what we would be meeting today.
Independent 8,906 by Phi
As usual an enjoyable and sound crossword from Dac Phi (my apologies for calling Phi Dac — I have a suspicion that this isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Well they do both have three letters in their name. I must cure my Dac-obsession.). I found it a bit tricky in places, but once a clue had been solved, there seemed to be no reason for the difficulty. Many of these answers are so neat that they can be explained in a single short expression.
Independent 8,897 by Phi
What has caused Phi to move from his customary Friday slot? No doubt on Friday it will be the anniversary of something. But what? the Iranian US Embassy Hostage crisis (1980)? Probably not. The launch of the Hubble Space telescope (1990)? More likely, but Phi himself would have been very suitable for that. Lots more possibilities, but no doubt it will be something that Google isn’t pointing us towards, like the anniversary of some pop singer doing something.
Whatever the reason, we have the usual Friday excellence here. Nothing dodgy (or even untrustworthy) here.